


Homeworlds

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Lots of lesbian sinning, Non-Malachite AU, Not sure what applies as graphic depictions of violence but there is gem monster fighting, Redemption AU, Space Rocks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-20 06:19:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4776797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Jasper stayed true to her views on fusion?<br/>(This work is also on Wattpad, under the same name.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The tension in the room was thick, as the original Crystal Gems and their new recruits all sat in the same room.

Of course there was tension; until recently they had all been enemies- enemies who had fought, enslaved, and had even planned to kill. Enemies who's very core values and beliefs were as different as black and white, or so they thought.

Just a few days earlier, the four Crystal Gems had brought the hand-shaped ship crashing down onto their beach, where the three Homeworld Gems emerged from the rubble. Jasper decided to take the Gems on again, even after her and Garnet's fight ended up bringing a ship down.

Jasper might have even won this battle, had it not been for the blue ocean gem.

Lapis saw the direction the fight was going and decided to take action, fighting on the side of her former captors- well, both sides had once kept her captive, but the Crystal Gems definitely kept her longer- for the fate of a certain half-human boy she called her friend, and the place he called home, and the people he called family.

The battle soon turned. Peridot ended up bound in Amethyst's whip, Jasper with a spear pointed directly to her gem by a defective Pearl with a clear message- you either submit, and join us, and live on Earth, and learn our ways.. or we shatter your gem, right here.

The choice was clear, and Jasper spoke both for herself and the Peridot she arrived here with- we submit.

Three days later, the three Homeworld gems are still coming to terms with Earth and their new teammates.

Jasper had been refusing to speak, and Peridot was also of few words. Lapis was settling in well- to her environment and Steven at least. She, understandably, wasn't quite getting along with the other Gems quite yet.

Pearl was more uncomfortable than unwelcoming or angry at her new teammates. She had once kept Lapis prisoner, but the same gem so quickly and easily fought for her. Jasper had hurt Pearl and her friends, and the boy who might as well be her son. But when she held her spear to Jasper's gem, she saw a true and genuine fear at the thought of death, and losing, and disappointing her team.

Peridot, to Pearl, reminded her of Homeworld, so much. She so desperately wanted to go home, back to space, back to the stars, back to the planet where there were Gems like her.. but Peridot also reminded her what Homeworld was actually like aside from her homesickness. It was cruel back in the place where she came from. Back there, they would see her as nothing more than the defective Pearl she is.

Amethyst, though, looked at Peridot and saw the kind of gem who was responsible for making her, the kind that planted Gems in Kindergartens in hopes of turning them into warriors. The kind of Gem who unknowingly sentenced Amethyst to a lifetime of regret just for existing.

The purple gem saw Jasper in a completely different view, though. She saw Jasper as what she should have been, what she could've been. What everyone expected out of her, a real warrior, not a stupid runt.

Jasper just looked down on them all, especially the fusion who damn near defeated her twice. Fusion is a disgusting tactic. No wonder Homeworld looks down on these Gems, if they just use it all the time like that! No wonder Homeworld hates fusion if packs of runts like this use it.

Peridot couldn't believe she was even spending time with these clods. She didn't want to ever see them again, much less associate with them! Her escort and her informant had so quickly switched sides and submitted! Of course she submitted too, but that's because she's a technician, not a warrior. Jasper should've been able to fight those clods, especially that skimpy, defective Pearl.

Garnet knew that this new addition to their team would prove useful in time to come, once they got over themselves and all started working as a team. However, she didn't know how long it would take them to get to that point, but she was sure it would happen. She knew these Gems had more in common than they thought. Maybe even the original members of the team would end up getting along better?


	2. Jasper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven finds out a little bit more about Homeworld from one of the newest Crystal Gems.

Jasper was sitting on the beach, alone, in the dark.

It had been a long three days since her ship crashed and she was forced into a rebel group of runts who go under the name 'The Crystal Gems'. They used to be an extremely powerful force- she remembered the war from thousands and thousands of years ago- she fought in it herself. Led by Rose Quartz, the Crystal Gems were an army of Gems set in protecting their stupid ways of fusion and the stupid apes who live on this planet.

The only reason Homeworld even laid an eye on this planet was because how rich in minerals it was. Homeworld had sucked its gem-developing resources dry. They needed other places to grow their armies and their people. They'd found other planets, whose resources were quickly sapped up by a few thousand gems each. Then, they found Earth. They could've completely doubled Homeworld's population with this planet's minerals, and then some! After the planet ran dry, it could have been Homeworld's secondary planet. Sure, Homeworld had many other planets under gem occupation, but none as vast and rich as this one. Any of them much bigger than this either didn't have enough resources to be useful enough to set up there, or they were gas planets with no use whatsoever.

It was a big surprise to the Diamond Authority when Rose Quartz and the rest of her scouting mission rose up against them.  They were sent out to see if the planet was all that it seemed, but they came back saying differently. They insisted that this planet couldn't be turned into a Kindergarten planet.

Jasper admittedly admired Rose Quartz. Her military tactics were great, she was a leader who followers loved, and she presented herself in a way that was desirable and likable to the common Gem. Jasper would've wanted to team up with her if it wasn't for her views on fusion and the humans. With how much she loved those stupid things, it wasn't that surprising to Jasper when the Gems informed her that she gave up her form to create the Steven child. Speaking of the hybrid, Jasper has found him.. interesting.

Over the days she's spent with him, she's noticed the Quartz child has needs much different than a usual gem. He complains of hunger and thirst, which means that the other Gems go into the area they call a 'kitchen' and turn on heating appliances and make a substance called 'food' which comes in many forms and has a pleasing scent. When the child has thirst he consumes water or a colored, water-like substance called 'juice'.

The child also has developed a large dark spot around his eye from when she head butted him unconscious. He complains of pain in that area, and Jasper was very confused as to why the child didn't just heal himself until she realized he must not be able to. She never interacted with humans during the war and she didn't plan to interact with them in the future, either, except for this child, maybe. Are all humans unable to heal themselves, or is this particular one disabled in that aspect?

She looked up at the stars, looking specifically for the one bright star around which orbited the planet she called home. Did the Gems ever look for their Homeworld in the night sky? Of course the Amethyst didn't, she smelt and looked and acted of the Earth- she must be young, that overcooked runt. Rose Quartz and the last of her army that hadn't been shattered must have found her in the Kindergarten and felt pity. Another thing Jasper didn't like about Rose- she took pity.

Jasper, still, couldn't help but wonder if the Rebels ever missed the world they were from.

The Steven child walked out onto the beach and sat down in the sand next to Jasper, who just glanced down at him before returning to looking at the sky.

He paused, looking at her as she continued to gaze at her star.

"You look kinda sad."

The orange Gem paused. She was not sad, she was just.. homesick, for a lack of a better word.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

She sighed, knowing the Quartz child wasn't going to go away until she spoke to him, and maybe not even then. So she gave up, and without looking down at him, spoke for the first time since she arrived.

"I know I'm never going back. I'm not sad, Quartz child. I'm just thinking."

"Yeah, you're thinking about not going home," he replied, shrugging, "That's gonna make anyone sad. You're from Homeworld, right? I've never been there."

Sadly, she thought. "I'm aware of that."

"Well.. Was it nice there?" The child had genuine curiosity, without intent of annoyance, and Jasper could tell. He wanted to know about the place his better ancestors were from. Why hadn't the fusion or the Pearl told him about it?

".. Yes. It was nice. It is a beautiful planet, with beautiful, tall buildings and structures." She was remembering, the tall structures where Gems lived, or were created, or carried out their day to day duties, their assigned class. Homeworld liked to build up, as even though it's planet was large, there were many Gems and many places needed. This lead to silvery , gleaming towers that stretched up into the often pink sky, sometimes even further than one can see. The planet had water structures too- tall fountains that stretched up into the air, or buildings made completely out of water which could sustain Gem residence as well.

However, Jasper realized- that wasn't the complete truth.

"It was also very structured and orderly, based on Gem class and assigned duties. Each Gem type had a purpose assigned to it. The Diamonds were very strict about Gems following their born and assigned duties, too. If someone refused to do so, or did something different, they would be-"

That's when Jasper realized something about the planet she was created on, and fought for.

It was cruel.

They took over worlds for their own use with complete disregard for developing species. What if Gems hadn't become the Universe's dominant race? What if it had been something like humans? What if Gems had been stomped out early on in their development like some of the other races? What if she had been brutally shattered by someone who had just landed on her planet, with no knowledge of her race or her background?

In her world, she realized, there was also no free will. Gems did what they were told or else. Jasper loved her purpose and was good at it- but what if she had been accidentally created with a liking to art, or creating? They would've smashed her before her first Rotation. This.. wasn't right, as she realized. Why couldn't gems decide what they wished to do with their life?

"Jasper, are you okay?"

The Quartz child's voice shook her out of her thoughts and she realized she had stopped mid-sentence with a rather shocked look on her face, which she immediately stopped making.

".. I don't miss it quite as much anymore."

Steven blinked, pausing before smiling.

"Cool! And just so you know, I think it's really cool that you're a Crystal Gem now. You're big, and you're strong, and I think you could punch down any of those monsters that come after us! Plus, I think you and Amethyst might get along. You're both strong, and your hair looks kinda alike, and you're both good fighters."

A small smile appeared on Jasper's face, as, against her wishes, she found she didn't dislike the child.

"Now, you tell me about this planet. Earth."


	3. Peridot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot investigates the Temple and it's inhabitants.

Peridot had found interest in the bits of human technology scattered around the Temple. The warp pad and door of similar technology were all created by Gems, so of course she knew everything about it, even more than the clods who had lived here for thousands of years. But, the human technology, however primitive, was something she hadn't gotten to toy with before. And, some of it's concepts were new. An example of this would be the box in the kitchen that the Gems and the Steven used to prepare food. A quick scan reveals the box uses small waves of energy to penetrate the food and heat it, making it edible.

Edibility is another strange concept in itself, one she learned about by watching the Steven and the Amethyst. By observing their behavior, the Amethyst eats a far greater range of things, and seems to be more tolerant to low edibility. She learned the word edibility when the Pearl squawked about something the Amethyst was eating being 'inedible'. She seemed to have no difficulty in eating it, though, so Peridot's second theory is that edibility is relative, instead of set. Either way, she noticed the Pearl stopping the Steven from eating something, so it must have been inedible.

Back on the topic of human technology, most of it was, in fact, based off of Gem technology. The larger heating box with a heating rack on the top is based off of the heating boxes from Homeworld- mostly used to incubate geodes, but some hatchlings and even fully grown gems enjoy being in a heating box. The one here appears to be modeled after geode models, and has a much higher temperature range- the higher temperatures it is capable of could kill a developing Gem.

The television box is much like that viewing panels back on Homeworld. It receives information of thousands of pictures to be strung together and viewed in a series to create the illusion of movement, and is also synched with audio. It does not appear that the dominant species of inhabitants on this planet- 'Humans'- have achieved holographic video, which takes the information in a completely different matter. Like much else of the technology on this planet, it is primitive, yet functional.

Peridot is scanning the television box when the Steven sits in front of the box and grabs a manipulator of some sort, pressing buttons on it and activating the television box. Peridot moves over and stops scanning- that can be continued later- to see the videos the Steven and this planet like to view.

"Oh- hi, Peridot! I'm watching Crying Breakfast Friends, do you want to watch too?" The Steven looks at Peridot, smiling, and moves over to make room for her. There appears to be a better angle of viewing from the spot on the floor, so she wordlessly takes a seat next to him.

"What is the point of this program?" Peridot asks, her head tilted and eyes narrowed in confusion. The Steven looks over at her and shrugs.

"I don't know. Fun?" he replies, before putting his attention back to the television box and the crying breakfast video.

"This does not appear to be fun, the breakfasts are clearly in emotional distress." She is still completely confused by why one would wish to watch this video about foods in emotional distress. Does the Steven derive entertainment from watching emotional distress? He doesn't seem like the type to do so, but she doesn't know very much about him, yet, so maybe he does.

"Well.. it's.." The Steven pauses, glancing at Peridot again, before grabbing the manipulator again and turning the television box off. "I don't think watching Crying Breakfast Friends is the best idea.." He sets the manipulator back down and stands up.

"No, turn the television box back on, I want to see what forms of entertainment the humans take." Peridot says, looking up at him. In all honesty, this is a test to see if she can stand living here with these clods and these humans for the rest of eternity, or however long she lives.

"There are even better things in Beach City! Like, there are my human friends I told you about once, and there's the arcade, and the amusement park, the ocean.. And maybe you can have a donut!" The Steven says, rather excitedly.

"Dough-nut?" The word is not familiar to her, and she has no idea of it's meaning, conveyed by the confusion on her face and the odd way she repeats it back to the Steven.

"Yeah, donut! It's food, they're really good. You should try one sometime! Pearl doesn't really like eating, but Amethyst and I really like doing it, so you should try! You might like it, just like us!"

Just like them- ugh, that's right, she is one of these Crystal Clods now. She might as well go ahead and replace the diamond on her clothing with a star! Seeing as, that does appear to be the symbol of the group- all four of them have one on their outfits. She didn't ever notice one on either the Ruby or Sapphire when the Garnet was unfused, most likely because they are normally fused all of the time and saw no need to put one of the stars on their outfits.

Honestly, Homeworld's militant anti-fusion attitude never really stuck with her. Two gems want to be one gem? Sure, let them. Of course, it makes Gems stronger, but the only fusion she's seen so far was Garnet, and she seems to do it more out of affection between the Ruby and the Sapphire than just out of need for power.

".. I do wish to see more of your human technology before consuming one of your donuts." Peridot stated, looking back at the television box.

"Okay! Well.. I have my computer around here, somewhere.." He then begins searching around the area of his bed, which is, from Peridot's observation, usually used for seating, or sleeping.

Sleeping is another new thing to Peridot, just like eating. It appears to be a dormant state both humans and gems can take, usually in the night, for several hours at a time. She witnessed both the Steven and the Amethyst preforming it- the Pearl watched the Steven sleeping for most of it. It appears to be peaceful, and the Steven once talked of dreams- hallucinations that occur while one is sleeping. Peridot is interested in the concept of both sleeping and dreams, and might try sleeping at some point.

The Steven pulls out a rectangular device, which he sets on the bed and folds open. There is a screen which lights up; it appears to be much like the television box's screen. It also has a set of keys on the lower half of the screen, with letters of the alphabet on them. This appears to be a keyboard, another primitive piece of technology. How exactly do humans live this way? Using keyboards, no holograms..

"This is my computer! It does lots of stuff, it's even connected to the Internet!" He says, as Peridot continues acquainting herself with the heavily outdated technology. "That's the screen, that's the keyboard, and that's the touchpad. You use that to move the mouse around."

"I know that." Peridot replies, even though she actually did not know that and was about to ask him where the control interface was. She pauses and scans the device- it's more modern than the rest of the appliances, and Peridot suspects the Pearl must've updated the computer for speed.

"Now can I take you to go and try donuts?" The Steven gets on the bed and leans over the computer's screen, looking at Peridot.

Peridot nods, closing the computer- she can see more with that later, and she's wondering what those donuts are and what eating is like.

"Alright." She replies, standing up.

"You guys are really cool, you know?" Steven jumps off of the bed and walks towards the door of the human-like addition to the Crystal Temple. "Jasper's super strong and she told me about Homeworld and I told her about Earth. Lapis is funny, and we're already friends from when she was in the mirror and we were Beach Summer Fun Buddies. We still are, but that's when it started! And you know a lot about technology and stuff and you're gonna go have donuts with me. I think we're gonna have fun with you here!"

Peridot follows Steven out the door, feeling a bit more happy now about being a Crystal Gem.


	4. Missing from Beach City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gems get up in the morning to a nasty surprise.

Over the next couple of days, tension between the Gems slackened, to the point where they could semi-comfortably hold conversation. Garnet was relieved about this; if something happened now, they could work as a team to fix it.

But, then something happened that even Garnet couldn't see coming.

Pearl came out of her room in the morning, stepped over a sleeping Amethyst, and walked into the kitchen, turning on the stove to prepare a breakfast for Steven. She usually didn't do this for him, but she was home and Steven had been dealing with the new additions to their team perfectly.

After the last egg had been placed on the plate for Steven, Pearl picked up the plate and walked for the part of the temple where Steven's bed was, to wake him up with breakfast in bed.

"Steven, wake up! I made you s--"

Amethyst woke up to the sound of a plate crashing to the ground and sat up.

"Hey, what's with all that noise?! Some of us are trying to sleep here-"

Pearl was frozen, staring at Steven's bed.

"He's.. not here. Steven isn't here." Pearl mumbled, terrified, just loud enough for Amethyst to hear. The smaller gem was sure Pearl was just joking with her, Steven couldn't possibly be missing..

But she was terribly wrong, as she looked at the empty space where Steven should be asleep.

"I.. Steven? Steven, buddy, we can play hide and seek later.." Amethyst ripped the blanket off of Steven's bed, not believing that Steven could have just disappeared in the middle of the night. "Steven, come out, you made P drop your breakfast!" She ran over to the door that led to his closet, yanking it open and pushing clothing aside, looking.

"Amethyst, he's not here!" Pearl nearly yelled, her voice going louder than she intended, as she tried to hold tears back. Her baby was missing. He has to be in trouble.

"He has to be!" Amethyst yelled back, continuing ripping through his closet. "Steven!"

That's when Lapis entered the beach house, after hearing the commotion outside.

"Why are you guys yelling this time?" Lapis questioned, with a sarcastic hint to her voice. "Pearl steal your breakfast?"

When Pearl turned to look at Lapis, tears were already flowing down her face.

"Steven's gone! He's missing! He's been kidnapped!"

"Wait, what?" The sarcasm in Lapis's voice instantly disappeared, and was instead replaced with fear, as she ran up the set of stairs into Steven's room, looking for her friend. "Where is he?"

Amethyst was on the verge of tears as well whenever she stormed out of Steven's closet.

"We don't know! He's not here! That's the problem!" Amethyst balled her hands into fists.

"I- I'm sure we can find him, he can't be far..." Lapis looked down at her hands. Where could he be? She didn't think someone would just kidnap him.

Jasper walked into the house. "I didn't find anything very interesting in the city- why are you all crying?"

"STEVEN IS GONE!" Pearl was entering hysterics.

"The Quartz child?" Jasper questioned, slightly confused. "He must be in the city!"

"Steven would never just leave in the middle of the night, that's not like him!" Pearl sobbed, beginning to pace around the room.

".. Guys, you might want to see this.."

The Gems headed outside to see what Amethyst was pointing out, and as soon as they were outside, it was obvious what happened to Steven.

Large, deep clawmarks in the sand, about 15 feet long and a foot wide.

Steven had been attacked and taken by a corrupted Gem.

"HE'S DEAD!" Pearl's panic escalated. "A MONSTER ATE HIM!"

Garnet stepped outside of the Temple and took one look at the scene.

"Get Peridot and get to the Warp Pad. Quick. We have no time to waste."

And with that, Garnet walked back into the temple.


	5. Monster Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gems go on a hunt for the clawed thing that took Steven.

In minutes, the team was assembled and on the warp pad, ready for the search of the missing boy they had all come to care about.

So far they only knew a single detail- they needed to watch for big claws.

Garnet had an idea of what might've taken the child, but again, the only idea she had was from her future vision and the same claw marks in the sand that everyone else saw. Her future vision wasn't 100% accurate, but they needed to start searching for him and fast, before anything happened to him.

The Crystal Gems warped out of their temple, appearing in a flash of light on a warp pad on the edge of a thick forest, which was ended by the ground becoming sandy and then stretching into beach, which edged a piece of ocean with rough waters.

"You think he's.. here?" Pearl began, regaining her composure, trying to focus not on what might be happening to her baby but on finding him. "It looks like there's nothing here."

Garnet glanced down at Pearl. "I think that whatever took him came here. .. By the size of the clawmarks, I think we should stick together." The tall gem then started off into the forest, followed by the rest of her team.

Pearl nervously summoned her spear, holding it out in front of her. If this monster made Garnet want to keep the group together, it must be something powerful.

Peridot glanced at the spear and gulped, stepping quietly through some fallen twigs. She had been programmed for checking on one of Homeworld's experiments, repairing technology, maybe taking a few clods prisoner- but not looking for a clawed beast in the middle of a forest, with such low visibility. She tried to see past the trees with her scanning ability, but with no result.

Amethyst took a lot of cues from Pearl- so, the smaller gem summoned her whip and slung it back over her shoulder.

The ocean gem stopped in her tracks, turning her head and walking past a tree and lifting up a shimmering black feather, approximately the length of her arm. "This is interesting.."

The leader of the group walked over to Lapis, looking at the feather and taking it from her hand, running a hand down the soft end of the feather. "Our monster must have wings," Garnet said with a small nod to Lapis, thanking her wordlessly for keeping a good eye, "Look for more feathers and claw marks.

Garnet continued to lead the other gems through the forest, snaking their way through trees, bushes, and other undergrowth.

Nervous and on edge, Pearl heard the snap of a twig being snapped on and immediately swung her spear, slicing clean through a small tree. It fell over, crashing into a bush and sending a rabbit which caused the snap sprinting.

"Pearl. Careful!" Garnet said in a low voice, turning to look at the other Gem, who relaxed her spear and looked down at the ground in shame.

"I.. I'm just nervous. I want Steven back." She mumbled, staring down at her feet, her voice shaking.

"Yeah, G! She's being careful! We have to watch out until we see the thing with all the feathers and claws, so we can smash it and get Steven back. Aren't you worried too?" Amethyst stepped up beside the pale Gem, grabbing Pearl's free hand with her own that wasn't holding the whip. Pearl's eyes widened and a slight blush spread on her face at the gesture, but she didn't yank her hand away.

Garnet paused, looking down at their intertwined hands and continuing on to find Steven's kidnapper.

"Why.. are you holding my hand?" Pearl still didn't pull her hand away, instead holding Amethyst's hand as well, her long, slender fingers laced through Amethyst's shorter ones.

Amethyst just shrugged, also continuing after their leader. "I wanted to."

Garnet pushed past a tree, then found a space where some trees had been cut down- obviously by a slash of claws, as trees that had not been completely sliced through bore rugged marks across their bark.

"Well.. we're going the right way." Jasper said, glancing around at the trees. Her long mane of hair had been caught in some twigs and leaves which just stayed in, giving her the appearance of a wild tiger.

Peridot nodded. "This thing has to be huge.."

"Let's just keep going, we need to find Steven quickly." Garnet kept pushing ahead through the forest, keeping an eye out for clues.

The group had grown silent, nothing to be heard except their breathing, rustling leaves, and their footsteps in the damp earth.

Garnet paused for a second, thinking of something to lighten a mood a little bit, before smiling and beginning to sing.

"If you're evil and you're on the rise, you can count on, the.. six of us taking you down."

Pearl looked up at their leader at hearing her voice, smiling slightly, hand still linked with Amethyst's. "Cause we're good and evil never beats us.."

The Gem holding her hand also looked up, laughing slightly. "We'll win the fight, and go out for pizzas! We.."

Lapis walked faster, to catch up closer to the front of the group. Back when Jasper and Peridot were being silent, Steven pulled out his ukulele and started playing this song for them. "Are the Crystal Gems."

Jasper remembered the words to the song and felt obligated to join in. "We'll always save the day."

In a less confident than usual manner, Peridot also joined in on the singing. "And if you think we can't, we'll always find a way."

The pale gem near the front of the group grinned. They actually felt like the Crystal Gems right now. It felt like they were a whole team, not just Gems cooperating together out of necessity, like it had felt with the ex-Homeworlds until now. "That's why the people of this world, believe in!"

"Garnet."

"Amethyst!"

".. Peridot."

"Jasper."

"Lapis!"

"And Pearl.."

There was silence, as they seemed to wait for the cheerful boy to call out his own name, but it was a sad moment for them all, as it sunk in completely that he was missing. He wasn't here, and that's why they were here in the middle of the forest to find the boy. He needed to be helped, to be saved.

The song hanging off in the air without any ending provided a motivation to the Gems to push on, and they continued on their way in silence.

Then, the silence was shattered, with a monstrous roar.


	6. Monster Smash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crystal Gems hunt down the monster that kidnapped Steven.

At the sound of the roar, Garnet summoned her gauntlets and curled them into fists, prepared to smash the monster out of existence. Jasper also summoned her weapon, her helmet, and went into a battle stance, growling.

That was when the monster soared overhead, a black flash of underbelly with it's gray, feathery wings stretched out across the sky as it streaked through the air, with a terrified, shirtless Steven in it's claws, folded up against it's body.

"STEVEN!" Pearl cried out, throwing her spear at the monster but missing it's wing by inches.

Steven opened his eyes, struggling against the monster's shiny, black claws. "Pearl! Garnet! Amethyst! Help!"

The monster seemed to have noticed the spear whiz by it's wing, responding with another screech and a flap of it's wings, sending itself flying faster.

"This way!" Garnet yelled, running off after the direction the monster went.

The rest of the team took no time sprinting after her, Pearl beginning to tear up again.

".. Don't worry, P. We're gonna get him."

\--

The monster dove down into the rough ocean, still gripping Steven in it's claws.

"Hey- hey! No! I can't breathe underwa-" Steven saw the monster dive into the ocean and held his breath, squeezing his eyes shut. All he had done was go outside in the morning and now he was being carried underwater by a giant dragon-bird!

Gliding through the water in a similar fashion as it flew through the air, it flew into a cave, which seemed to be it's home.

It was pretty dark, lit only by luminescent gem creatures which scattered out of the way when the monster flew in, dropping the wet child and shaking the water off of it's feathers. As it stretched out it's wings, Steven got his first good look at the monster kidnapper.

He noticed the creature didn't have front legs- only the hind legs with large claws that it used to carry him back to it's layer. Instead, it either staid on it's hind legs or used it's front wings rather like front legs, reminding him of a bat. It had a long, feathery, cat-like tail, which it stretched out as well as it dried itself off.

Steven also noticed something else, as the monster swing it's giant head to seemingly look him in the face. It had no eyes, only a hawk-like beak. But it seemed to see with it's eyeless head.

The monster snatched Steven up with it's claw again, and he yelped out, as it used it's wings as legs as it walked over to a pile of various shiny things- such as silverware, pieces of plastic, coins, jewelry, and other things.

Then, he saw, as it placed him on the pile of things, the floor was littered with gem shards.

\--

The gems were running as fast as their legs could carry them.

Steven was definitely in trouble, with the look of that monster carrying him. They needed to rescue him, and quick.

He had to be terrified out of his mind!

Garnet stopped, skidding in the sand. "I lost it.."

Jasper looked up at the sky. ".. No. You didn't."

The monster dived into the water, still holding Steven in it's claws, with a huge splash.

"What- I.." Garnet was cut off by a very worried Pearl.

"Steven can't breathe underwater!" Pearl cried out, gripping at her hair with her hands.

Lapis paused. ".. Yeah, I didn't know that.." She then walked up to the edge of the water, her bare toes just meeting the ocean, and she threw her arms up in the air, using her water manipulation to split the water. It went all the way back, a dry row in the middle of the ocean- until it came to a cave in the ocean floor that was definitely the monster's layer.

Amethyst was impressed.

Wordlessly, the other Crystal Gems, followed by Lapis, ran down the dry slice of ocean floor into the gem monster's den. Once there, they stopped, silently listening to the heavy breathing of the gem monster just feet away, behind a pile of gold and other shiny items, not having noticed them.

Steven then turned around and gasped. "GUYS!" 

Pearl tried to hush the child, but she was too late, and the monster swung it's great eyeless head to look at them.. or.. sense them. The slender gem instinctively snatched up the child and sprinted back to the group, which immediately formed a barrier between the monster and Steven.

"Steven! Go up to the beach! Get away from here!" Jasper summoned her helmet, positioning herself into a battle stance.

The boy looked up at the muscular Gem. "No! I want to help fight the-"

"STEVEN! GO!" Garnet also readied herself for battle, summoning her gauntlets- which indicated to the rest of the team they needed to summon their stuff as well. Steven looked over at her and decided it was best that he actually did go back to the beach, and ran out.

Peridot didn't summon anything, looking rather unprepared compared to the other five, but she seemed ready to battle this thing, confident, even while seemingly without a weapon.

The monster exhaled, blowing hot air into their faces, and closed it's jaw fully with a crunch.

A shard of gem fell onto the ground from it's beak, and it swallowed the crushed gem.

Amethyst felt sick.

Just when the Crystal Gems were out of shock at the monster's cannibalistic taste, it sliced at them with a shining black claw. They jumped out of the way before anyone could've gotten hurt, luckily. Everyone had seen what had happened to those trees.

Jasper readied herself into a battle stance again and charged at it, helmet first. The monster turned to look at her and Jasper's helmet collided with the dragon's head with a sickening crack.

At the impact, the monster stumbled backwards, stunned by the raw force that had just met it's skull, and the Gems took this as a chance to try and defeat it. Amethyst swung her whip high above her head and lashed it at the monster, who screeched at the shards ripping into it's hologram, causing a spillage of light. Garnet ran forward to slam her gauntlets into it's gem, but the corrupted gem was brought to it's senses by Amethyst's whip and slammed Garnet aside with it's neck.

Garnet hit the wall and rocks tumbled from the ceiling. She quickly stood and readied herself for another attack. Pearl jumped up and gracefully dived down with her spear first, prepared to plunge it into the back of the monster and cause it to retreat to it's gem. However, her moment never came as the monster dived out of the way and her spear met hard stone. It lashed it's tail, knocking Pearl off her feet as well. She hit the ground hard, and laid there.

Jasper prepared to charge again at the enraged monster, and Lapis summoned a water clone of Garnet, a gem she was used to summoning. She knew how Garnet moved and how she attacked from their earlier encounter, and she knew exactly what would be the most effective against this monster.

Just as she prepared to send out the water clone, Peridot yelled out. "STAND BACK!"

The gems looked over at the technician gem, slightly surprised by her aggressiveness and stance. The young gem had no weapon, what was she going to do?

She readied her arm and began to charge an energy cannon, a ball of energy appearing near the appendage of her arm, fingers folded out of the way. The energy ball grew and she fired it in a cannon shot at the monster that she had quickly grown to hate, as it had tried to hurt the one thing on this planet she was growing not to hate.

Blasting into the gem monster, the energy cannon smashed into the monster and it's hologram body disappeared, the dark gray gem that was placed on it's chest clattering to the stone floor.

Before anyone else could stay anything, Jasper walked up to the fallen gem and crushed it beneath her heel, grinding it into the stone floor.

No one objected, and they gathered themselves. The monster was gone, ground into dust under Jasper's heel. They could relax now.

Speaking of relaxing, they remembered Steven was still alone on the beach, and they all ran up to him.

"Steven! Oh, Steven! We were so worried about you! We were so scared!" Pearl sobbed, squatting down and hugging Steven tightly. Lapis walked out to the edge of the beach again, by the ocean, and with a quick flick of her hands she relaxed the ocean and it came back together with a crash. She laughed, getting hit by the salty ocean spray.

"Yeah, Steven. We thought you got hurt." Amethyst ruffled Steven's hair, and he laughed, pushing her hand away.

The laughter of the two gems spread through the rest of the group, ending up with everyone laughing, even Garnet, at the resolved tension and the strange day and the warm feeling of having Steven safe again and finally being a team.

".. Okay now, I'm cold and I want a shirt."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amethyst plays a prank on Pearl.  
> Steven has Connie over at the Temple.

Amethyst snuck up into Pearl's fountain in her room, shifted into a crocodile.

The purple gem obviously had a special place in her gem for pranking Pearl. She cared for her very much, don't get her wrong, but it was so fun to see Pearl all like she gets whenever she gets pranked.

She shifted back to her usual form and looked at the bottle of bubble bath in her hands. This was going to be one of the best pranks she's pulled yet. She uncaps the bottle- not just flipping up the top, but taking the entire cap from the bottle and emptying the soap into the fountain. It immediately started bubbling up. Amethyst snickered and shifted back into the alligator she liked to take the form of and swam out of the room and back into her own.

\--

"AMETHYST WHAT DID YOU DO."

Pearl was very angry from the tone of voice Amethyst heard, but then again, Amethyst had just been jolted out of a deep sleep.

"I didn't do anything to you, what did you do to yours--"

She opened her eyes, and immediately burst into laughter. Pearl was not amused at all, still angry and covered from head to toe in thick soap bubbles.

Steven sat up in his bed, woken from the laughter. "What's happe-" He looked over at Pearl and she looked back at him- and he started laughing as well.

"UGH! You two- I just- just-" Pearl stormed out of the room and went back into her own, which was completely filled with bubbles,

Steven and Amethyst continued laughing.

"Amethyst, what did you do?" Steven asked, after getting over the initial hilarity of Pearl covered in bubbles.

"Well.. I went to the store and stole a bottle of bubble bath. I'd been planning this prank for a while. So, then, while Pearl was probably dreaming about Rose, I snuck into her room- disguised as a crocodile and all- I dump the whole bottle of soap in one of her fountains! Great prank, right?"

The young Crystal Gem looked up at Amethyst. "That wasn't really nice, Amethyst. Why would you do that to Pearl?"

"Because it's funny. And she gets all mad, and it's, just.." Amethyst stopped, thinking. It never really crossed her WHY she did it, she just did it. She just liked to prank Pearl. She liked to see how Pearl got all upset and stuff whenever she messed with her.

"It's still not nice!" Steven crossed his arms.

"I'm not nice. We're not nice. We're aliens, sucking up resources from a planet of humans and crushing corrupted gems. Nothing we do is nice."

Steven pouted. "Well, I think we're nice. We help the town and stop Gems from invading Earth. And we make them nice too, so then we can protect Earth and Beach City even more! And since we're all nice, you can be nice to Pearl, too."

Amethyst rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch cushions.

\--

Later that day, all six of the full Gems were off on a mission. Well, Peridot said it was a mission. Garnet said that her, Amethyst, and Pearl were going to go and train the new Crystal Gems, and Steven suspected she was the correct one. 

Since they were all gone and Steven found it boring to be all alone, Steven invited Connie over to watch reruns of Under The Knife. They had, of course, seen every episode, so they weren't really all that interested in the show but were more interested in their conversation.

"..So, yeah. Nothing really that interesting going on in my life.." Connie rubbed the back of her neck, feeling awkward at how mundane her life was compared to the half-alien Steven's life.

"That is kind've interesting. The Gems never care what I do that much. They leave me home a lot." Steven was actually interested in knowing what other people's lives were like. He knew his own life wasn't exactly the norm, but that didn't bother him at all. He just wanted to know what a more 'normal' life was actually like. It apparently includes controlling parents.

"I've noticed. What's new for you?"

"Well.. Amethyst played another prank on Pearl today. She went into Pearl's room- she has a bunch of water and fountains and stuff in there- then she poured an entire bottle of bubble bath into the water. Now there's a whole bunch of soap bubbles everywhere and Pearl came out mad and covered in bubbles. So, I asked Amethyst why she kept doing this to Pearl, and she just said she liked seeing Pearl's reaction. They should be nicer to each other!"

Connie picked up Steven's juice box and took a drink, glancing over at the television. "So, how long have they been together?"

"Pearl said her and Amethyst met, like, 5000 years ago. Amethyst was kinda on her own for about her first 1000 years.. I think that's when she learned Spanish." Steven was thinking back to what all the Gems had said to him about it.

"No, I mean, how long have they been dating? Do Gems even do human dating?" Connie set down the juice box and looked over at the staring face of Steven.

".. They aren't together like that. They're friends." He was still staring at Connie as he spoke.

"They act like they're a married couple. Like, didn't you read about Hannah and Jacob in Familiar Unfamiliar? They acted just like Amethyst and Pearl. Hannah played pranks on Jacob all the time.. Now that I think about it, it makes more sense that Amethyst and Pearl aren't dating yet. Hannah and Jacob argued a lot before they started dating, too."

"We should make Amethyst and Pearl get married!" Steven's eyes lit up and he smiled. "Maybe then they'll stop arguing all the time!"

"Whoa, Steven. You said they aren't even dating. We need to get them to do that before we try and have them get married. If they even do get married.. were your mom and dad married?" Connie truly had no idea what Gems did.

"We should set them up on a date! Then they'll see they love each other and want to date, and then they'll get rings and wedding dresses!" He really wanted Pearl and Amethyst to start being nice to each other and stop yelling and fighting.

".. It doesn't just happen like that, Steven. It takes years of getting to know a person and dating to know if you want to marry them." Connie thought it was funny how excited Steven was getting over setting Amethyst and Pearl up, but he didn't really know much about human relationships, did he? "But, yes, it could be fun to try and get them to start dating each other."

"Well, Pearl doesn't eat, so we probably don't want to try and have them go to dinner together. Maybe we could-" Steven's eyes lit up again and he began grinning. "Yes! I've got it!"

"What is it?"

"We get Amethyst and Pearl to watch the sunset together on the beach, then we have Lapis use the water to attack me! They really work together and get close when I'm in danger, and maybe-- yes! Yeah, then they'll fuse, and they'll fall in love! And they'll keep watching sunsets and go for walks on the beach and stop fighting!"

"Wait-- who's Lapis?" Connie gave him a look.

"Oh, another interesting thing going on.."


End file.
